If you’re uncomfortable with some of the suggestions (or commands) that your supervisor gives you, you might want to put a cross or a Buddha in your workstation.

A study done at Northwestern University’s School of Management found that placing articles that indicate belief in ethical behavior near you might have a positive effect on how morally compromised bosses treat you.

Researchers surveyed 104 boss-subordinate pairs from various organizations in India, where religious tokens are commonly placed in desk areas. Subordinates who displayed moral symbols – pictures of Jesus, Buddha, or Krishna, or rosary beads – were more likely to be considered employees with high moral character.

As such, they were less likely to be placed in ethically compromising situations, even if their supervisors practiced a different religion.

The study team hopes the findings help workers avoid repercussions from a boss for refusing to partake in the unethical behavior – or better still, prevent the morally compromising situation from happening in the first place.

They believe that giving subordinates the power to influence behavior in the office from the bottom up will prove to be key to improving overall workplace ethics.

Sourced from: Medical Daily, Trouble With Bad Bosses? Keeping Rosary Beads Or A Buddha Statue May Keep Them At Bay

It seems that emergency rooms in America are kept busiest by the regular business of a relatively small percentage of the population.

A report, based on a national survey done by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), found that 18 percent of adults said they visited the ER at least once in 2014 – and about 6.5 percent said they visited the ER two or more times that year.

Women were more likely than men to make an ER visit; about 20 percent of women said they went to the ER, compared with 16 percent of men. Young people were also slightly more likely to end up in the ER. In 2014, 20 percent of people ages 18 to 29 said they visited the ER at least once, compared to 17 percent of people ages 30 to 44, and 17.5 percent of people ages 45 to 64.

Overall, 12 percent said they went because their doctor’s office wasn’t open, and 7 percent didn’t have access to other health care providers.

Since almost 8 million people gained health insurance between 2013 and 2014 as a result of the Affordable Care Act, the researchers looked at whether there were changes in ER visits during this period. The numbers did not change dramatically, but in 2014, about 14 percent of adults with private insurance visited the ER, compared to 35 percent of adults on Medicaid and 16.5 percent of adults without insurance.

The study authors believe that high use of the ER among people on Medicaid may be because this population is generally in poorer health than people with private insurance or those who are uninsured.

Sourced from: Live Science, 1 in 5 US Adults Visits ER Yearly

Tests were halted in December on beloranib, Zafgen’s drug to treat obesity, after two patients died.

But the company announced that before that stoppage, patients given 1.8 mg and 1.2 mg doses of beloranib lost 12.7 and 13.5 percent of their body weight, respectively, in a mid-stage study. Patients given a placebo lost just 3.1 percent of their weight.

The FDA requested that Zafgen halt all tests on beloranib after a second patient died during a trial. Obesity treatments have generally been plagued by safety concerns, particularly related to heart risk and birth defects, and several have been taken off the market for these reasons.

Last month, Zafgen said beloranib was successful in treating Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS), the most common genetic cause of life-threatening obesity. The company plans to present the FDA with data from both trials, conducted before the FDA stopped tests, and a proposal for a risk mitigation strategy for beloranib in PWS to resolve the complete clinical hold.

Researchers are working to better understand the potential impact of the drug on thrombosis. Both patient deaths associated with the treatment were related to blood clotting.

Sourced from: Reuters, Zafgen obesity drug succeeds in mid-stage trial, shares rise